Jonzun Radio Kids Interviews Julius, Monica, and Steve
Archive for the ‘leadership’ Category
Jonzun Radio Kids Interviews Julius and Monica
Sunday, May 8th, 2011It is that time of the year again when we think about others.
Thursday, December 2nd, 2010We Need Your Help
Please look at the “before and after” photos. See the progress of our remarkable children in Uganda.
They are overcoming the traumas of war, AIDS, and poverty to become leaders who will help their country.
Please think about our children as you consider your holiday donations.
2010 was a turning point for L.E.A.D Uganda.
We admitted a twenty new students. Most were girls. “We will admit more girls until we reach gender equality,” says Director Monica Nankoma.
We purchased 15 acres of land, which will be future home for our orphans. We plan to build dorms, an office, and a community center on the land in the next two years.
Our future plans include constructing a high school with an advanced information technology / science focus. There is no school like this in sub Saharan Africa.
Our students continue to excel.
Last June, Joseph became the first poor boy elected Head Boy at Budo Junior, Uganda’s elite primary school. Joseph, whose parents died from HIV/ AIDS when he was 3 says, “I feel like I am a hero. This is a school for (cabinet) ministers children and so on. They come from very rich families, but I am their leader.”
Former rock quarry laborer Katongole was elected to University Student Guild Council. More than half of Uganda’s members of Parliament started on the Guild Council. Katongole is studying pharmacy at Makerere University on a full Government scholarship.
8 of out of our 9 candidates received 1st grades on their national exams, taken at the end of 11th grade.
7th grader Amos, an orphan from a refugee camp in northern Uganda, and 4th grader Victoria, who comes from a slum area in Kampala, both received perfect 4 in 4 grades. Rahim was a finalist in a national math contest and continues at the top of his class.
Student entrepreneur, Allisen, built the most efficient farm in his village using modern agricultural techniques he learned in school. The profits to pay his university fees.
We need you this year more than ever.
We do not have the financial means to do all we need to do for our kids without your renewed support. Your financial partnership is vital to our children. In these are difficult economic times, when many of our supporters are hurting and can not help as much as they would like, your support is even more crucial.
One thing L.E.A.D Uganda can promise you that not every non-profit can is that we are really making a difference in training the next generation of entrepreneurs, scientists, doctors. We achieve this by going the distance with our kids, who we treat as we treat our own children. They respond by doing incredible things.
“You do so much with so little,” is what Leah Karp of the Goldfarb Foundation told me recently.
L.E.A.D Uganda is small, but effective.
Please give us a little so we can do a lot of good in the world. Help us transform the life of a child. Your donation allows one orphan, one child who was abducted and forced to participate in the war, one child who worked in a rock quarry to attend the very best boarding school and realize their potential.
100% of the money you give goes to the children’s education, healing, and care.
Pleasae make a recurring monthly (or a one-time) donation by clicking on the “Help Change Lives – Donate Now!” button below:
Kimbowa Elected
Wednesday, August 4th, 2010Kimbowa Elected Education Minister
Kimbowa, whom the students call “Obama” because of his oratory skills, was elected Education Minister at Seeta High Schoo. He gathered 70% of the votes against two competitors. “The students liked him most because he is composed and smart. He voluntarily led prayers before the campign, so the students were familiar with him,” says Sanyu, his L.E.A.D Uganda sister.
PHOTO: Kimbowa’s campaign poster
Kimbowa transfered to Seeta High after getting a 1st grade on his 11th Grade / “O” Level National Exams. He was Head Prefect (Student Body President) at his former school. He chose to run for Education Minister, rather than Head Prefect so he could concentrate on his studies. Kimbowa hopes to earn a Government Sponsorship to university next year.
An email from last year: “It is such a great excitement to me to write to you again. How have you been since we last spoke?
Just to let you know about what I have been up to this term in school. I am now in my final year in ‘O’ level (11th grade). I have just handed over my office as the school’s Head Prefect. I have to do this because I need to concentrate on my studies and score highly on my final exams at the end of the year.
I am proud of my service to my school as its Head Prefect. In my time as head prefect, I managed to improve on the discipline of the students. Being Head Prefect enhanced my public speaking skill. Before, I was a very shy student.
This term we had an exhibition at school with the theme ‘Maximize Your Potential’. It was aimed at helping my school, the community and our dear parents and guardians to create opportunities from locally available resources like grass, trees, land, and animals. 32 clubs were involved including; the Agriculture, Red Cross, Debate, and Art Clubs. My club demonstrated how to make shoe polish from old, used up batteries. We also made banana ice cream, soap, and tea from dried and pounded lemon. We gave the parents a little taste of what we produced: tea made from lemon skin, crushed jackfruit seeds and cocoa seeds. You should have been there. You missed!
I oversaw the whole program. I supervised my fellow students. I showed them how to explain what was going on to the visiting parents. You know, I was dressed like a laboratory attendant! I really enjoyed the appearance, though my friends were amused. I can tell you that all went well according to plan. It was a great day.
Thank everyone for their help keeping me in school. Their support has really helped me to ascend to great heights. To be a club president is no small feat for me. I can not forget that before I was a child worker, making and selling envelopes for pills. I was out of school. Now I am becoming a leader.
I will work very hard so that I make you proud of me by scoring excellent grades. I now need to sign off. I must attend my biology class.
I covet your prayers, Kimbowa
Sanyu elected to student government
Wednesday, August 4th, 2010Sanyu Elected Uniform & Language Minister
Sanyu Nakyeyune, was elected Uniform and Language Minister at Seeta High after a three-way race. According Mrs. Kagoda, Seeta’s Headmistress, Sanyu is “is mature and knows what she wants. She demostrated the confidence and intellectual capacity to take on the ministerial role.”
Sanyu is the elder sister of Joseph, who was recently elected Head Boy of Budo Jr. School. At 10, Sanyu was head of the household, taking care of Joseph and Sarah. She has come a long way inthe past few years with the help of generous people like you and the L.E.A.D Uganda family.
PHOTO: Sanyu (right) in the computer lab.
Sanyu says, “My father died of AIDS when I was 4 years old. My mother died the next year. She left us in great sorrows with a 11-month-old baby, Sarah, 3-year-old Joseph. I used to stay home alone, as head ofthe family, and look after them when my elder sister and brother went to a boarding school
It was really hard for me to look after my little brother and my baby sister when I was 10-years-old. Can you imagine a 10-year-old girl looking after her sister and her brother? I had to to wake up very early in the morning to collect firewood from the forest, and fetch water from a borehole that was 1 km away from home. I had to travel a distance of 3 km to school every day on foot. After school, I dug in people’s gardens and washed people’s clothes to get money for food and to buy milk for the baby.
PHOTO: Sanyu in class at Seeta High, one of Uganda’s top high schools.
At that time, I thought my baby sister wouldn’t survive. There is a time when she got sick. I had no money to board a taxi and take her to the hospital. I didn’t have money for bills at the hospital and neither did I know what she was suffering from. I really lost hope.I thought my baby sister was going to die. Luckily she got better all by herself.
But God is great L.E.A.D Uganda came into my life. Ever since I joined L.E.A.D Uganda, everything has changed. L.E.A.D Uganda saved me from the sorrow of darkness.
Joseph is 1st From a Poor Family to Be Elected Head Boy at Budo Junior, Uganda’s Elite Primary School.
Tuesday, June 29th, 2010“I feel like I am a hero,” says Joseph, “This is a school for (cabinet) minister’s children and so on. They come from rich families, but I am their leader.”
CLICK HERE TO SEE THE VIDEO OF
JOSEPH BEING SWORN IN AS HEAD BOY
PHOTO: : Josepi takes the oath of office.
“My parent’s death caused many tears for me,” says Joseph whose parents died of HIV/AIDS when he was three, “I really loved them. I really miss them. Whenever I thought about them something bad would happen in my mind. I would burst into tears.
But my peers at L.E.A.D Uganda comforted me. They helped me stop thinking about my parents. Now I think about my future. Where I come from you only find poor people. The the only job is farming. Now I can be whatever I want.
PHOTO: 3-year-old Joseph (2nd from left) at the funeral of his mother in 2000.
“L.E.A.D Uganda has given me a very large family. I have many sisters now and many brothers, And we all are doing well. If they weren’t there, where would I be? L.E.A.D Uganda showed me the right way to behave as a leader, how to stand in front of other people, not fearing them. I was proud today when I saw myself in front of the other students, praying for them.”
Joseph, who is nicknamed Muwa, received 632 out of 870 votes (73%) in a three way race.
“Muwa is friendly to others,” relates Budo Junior’s Head Master Kavulu Ernest, “He listens to them. He is empathetic. The other children have confidence in him. They want him to lead them and they are happy about it.”
Joeph leads morning prayer at school.
“I have known this school since 1981 and this has not happened. Joseph is the first boy from a very poor family to become Head Boy,” says Budo Junior Head Master Kavulu Ernest, “What is unique about L.E.A.D Uganda is you have gone several steps higher than those other NGOs.”
The new Head Boy with Budo Juniors Head Master Kavulu Ernest and the newl Head Girl.
“You pay a lot of money to have your children in first class schools where leadership is valued,” continues Budo’s Head Master. We have hopes that Joseph can become an MP, a President, the manager of a bank, a very important person in the country. We have no doubt about that.”
“What other programs do may be wrong. It is not enough to help a child go to school if the child does not benefit a lot from the school. Others take children to poor schools. I’m saying poor because the (academic) presentation in these schools is not enough. So the drop out rate is very high.
UGANDA FACT: Only 47% of students complete 7th grade. The majority of those who drop out are girls.
“L.E.A.D picks vulnerable children from rural areas. Uganda has very many of these children. They have brains but they can not access education that can tap their talents. The gap of having no parents must be filled. Emotional strength comes from parents and those who take up the responsibility of parents, like L.E.A.D Uganda. You visit them. You joke with therm. You play with them. They tell you their problems. You help them get strong emotionally. Every need of the child is met from a small pencil to the biggest book.”
In class.
“L.E.A.D gets value for its’ money, concludes Mr. Kavulu, “When you see the fruit of your labor — a person like Muwa — when he leaves this school and you see him in a responsible position, you will be very proud of him.
What I would request of you and the community in the United States that supports you, is to lift as many children as you can from rural areas. Take them to the best schools so these children can get the right education and then they will become important persons in the country. That will be very good for this country and, of course, the world at large.”
Students conduct workshops during January’s school break.
Wednesday, March 17th, 2010We train our students to be leaders: to see a problem and do something about it. Sanyu saw that our new students were shy and reluctant to speak up. So she enlisted the help of other students and ran a public speaking workshop for our dozen new students.
Many of our student-leadera held workshops and tutored their peers to help them perform better in school:
• Six of our high school students held workshops.
• 7th grader Amos conducted a workshop for primary students.
• Twenty students tutored and mentored younger students.
• Katongole held a workshop on getting into university.
• Moses won a scholarship to attend a leadership seminar in India.
UNICEF Interviews Sanyu & Nokrach
Sunday, March 14th, 2010UNICEF interviewed L.E.A.D Uganda students Sanyu and Nokrach at the United Nations recently.
The UNICEF podcast can be heard by clicking here:
Learning to be leaders in Uganda
If the link does not work, cut and paste this onto your browswer:
http://www.educationandtransition.org/resources/podcasts/learning-to-be-leaders-in-uganda/
L.E.A.D Uganda student Sanyu interviewed at the United Nations Radio.
This is what UNICEF said about the podcast on their website:
NEW YORK, USA, 8 February 2010 – UNICEF’s recently launched Humanitarian Action Report 2010, estimates that at least 1.2 million people are in need of humanitarian assistance in Uganda due to droughts, flooding, internal displacement and the return of at least 300,000 Ugandans following the cessation of the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) activities.
Other UNICEF figures reveal that nearly half the estimated 2 million Ugandan orphans are orphaned due to AIDS, and the LRA has abducted more than 25,000 children since 1986.
Podcast moderator Amy Costello spoke with two Ugandan students, Sanyu, 14, who was orphaned by AIDS, and Nokrach, 16, a former child soldier, about their experiences and the transformative impact education has had on their lives.
“Maybe I’d be dead”
After losing both her parents to AIDS when she was very young, Sanyu had to drop out of school to take care of her young sister and brother.
Soon after, she met American photographer Steven Shames, and now Sanyu attends one of the top schools in Uganda. She is supported by Mr. Shames’ organization L.E.A.D. Uganda, an education and leadership program for disadvantaged children in Uganda.
When asked what she thought would have happened if she hadn’t become involved with L.E.A.D. Uganda Sanyu says thoughtfully, “I don’t know. Maybe I’d be dead”.
Becoming leaders
L.E.A.D Uganda student Nokrach interviewed at the United Nations Radio.
Nokrach says he was only 7 years old when rebel soldiers abducted him and forced him to fight in Uganda’s civil war.
After fleeing the conflict, Nokrach also became involved with L.E.A.D Uganda, and is now attending school, which he says has improved his confidence.
“I can lead my friends and lead the country maybe one day and I think I (now) have the courage and leadership skills… I believe I can make it,” he says.
Sanyu says education cannot be taken for granted.
“Education… is to do with the future and that’s how you can achieve your dreams and your goals,” Sanyu says. “I aspire to be a doctor… I want to fight AIDS that takes the life of many in my country”.
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photos: ©2009, Stephen Shames / Polaris
These photographs may be used to discuss L.E.A.D Uganda.
